Book contents
- African Genesis:
- Series page
- African Genesis
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 African Genesis: an evolving paradigm
- 2 Academic genealogy
- Part I In search of origins: evolutionary theory, new species and paths into the past
- 3 Speciation in hominin evolution
- 4 Searching for a new paradigm for hominid origins in Chad (Central Africa)
- 5 From hominoid arboreality to hominid bipedalism
- 6 Orrorin and the African ape/hominid dichotomy
- 7 A brief review of history and results of 40 years of Sterkfontein excavations
- Part II Hominin morphology through time: brains, bodies and teeth
- Part III Modern human origins: patterns and processes
- Part IV In search of context: hominin environments, behaviour and lithic cultures
- Index
- Plate Section
3 - Speciation in hominin evolution
from Part I - In search of origins: evolutionary theory, new species and paths into the past
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2012
- African Genesis:
- Series page
- African Genesis
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 African Genesis: an evolving paradigm
- 2 Academic genealogy
- Part I In search of origins: evolutionary theory, new species and paths into the past
- 3 Speciation in hominin evolution
- 4 Searching for a new paradigm for hominid origins in Chad (Central Africa)
- 5 From hominoid arboreality to hominid bipedalism
- 6 Orrorin and the African ape/hominid dichotomy
- 7 A brief review of history and results of 40 years of Sterkfontein excavations
- Part II Hominin morphology through time: brains, bodies and teeth
- Part III Modern human origins: patterns and processes
- Part IV In search of context: hominin environments, behaviour and lithic cultures
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
In this chapter, I survey ideas of the concept of species, as they apply to the human evolutionary record. I discuss the question of the meaning of a genus, concluding that all species since the separation of the human line from that of the chimpanzee (and possibly including the chimpanzee lineage as well) should be placed in a single genus, for which the prior available name is Homo. How new species arise is a yet more controversial topic, and I list the variety of modes of speciation that have been proposed, with predictions as to what the results of some of these modes might look like, making suggestions as to how they might apply in palaeoanthropology.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- African GenesisPerspectives on Hominin Evolution, pp. 45 - 62Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
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